Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A Tribute to Heroes & a Villain Who Have Worn Hats

Thanks to languagehat's Post Today www.languagehat.com
We're Celebrating the Hats Worn By Some of Our Fav Folks
http://www.gallerym.com/images/work/big/williams_ted_lester_young_newport_jazz_festival_1965_11x14_L.jpgThe Prez--one of the very greatest individual jazz stylists ever in his signature porkpie hat.
Alex "Rice" Miller, Sonny Boy Williamson #2. A proponent of the derby and the bowler hat.
http://z.about.com/d/blues/1/0/-/3/ricemiller.jpgAnother pose--from the Final Sessions album.

http://www.tnstate.edu/library/digital/williams.gifJohn Lee Williamson, the original Sonny Boy Williamson, looking snazzy in damn fine hat and a double-breasted suit.
http://www.athenscentre.gr/Miller.gifHenry Miller in 1938, at the Cosmococcic Telegraph Co.
http://www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/James_Joyce.jpgYou never saw Jimmy Joyce without a cap or hat.
http://img.timeinc.net/time/time100/images/main_joyce.jpgNope, you never saw Jimmy Joyce without a hat. Here he is wearing a fedora in 1938.
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/graphics/rolandkirk.jpgRahsaan Roland Kirk was a hat man; a top hat here.
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z311/maremare0/Dr.John2.jpgAnd Mac Rebenack is a hat man--wow, his hat matches his coat and his hatband matches his shirt. That's one-time wear, isn't it? Nice bein' rich if you're a hat man.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2e/AlCapone.jpg/270px-AlCapone.jpgYep, Al Capone was a hat man. He was bald under that hat so it seldom came off; not even when he whacked some deserving stoolie.
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/00/talltx/tubb.jpgErnest Dale Tubb of Crisp, Texas, was a hat man. Said he felt naked without it.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/classical_artists/drz000/z052/z05288z503b.jpgCharlie Ives, the world's greatest composer, was a hat man; he, too, was bald under that hat.
http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/humor/wc-fields.jpgAnd W.C. Fields was a man of many hats. A half-topper like he's wearing here was always a part of his juggling act--he juggled cigar boxes and threw the hat in all the time among the cigar boxes as though it accidentally got trapped in the circling cigar boxes--at one time Fields was said to be the world's finest juggler.
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=66017&rendTypeId=4Bud Abbott and Lou Costello used hats as devices in many of their routines--the Susquehanna Hat Company routine for instance where Lou Costello destroys at least 12 or 13 straw boaters (prop hats I guess though they looked real) during the routine.

I had an aunt named Hattie Lee.

thehatlessgrowlingwolf
for The Daily Growler (not to be mistaken for The Daily Bowler)

Hat Men, a Hat Pig, and a Famous Hatted Babe We Overlooked:

http://www.ehistorybuff.com/sports/sneadiccsp06.jpgSlammin' Sammy Snead, for instance. How could we have forgotten Sam Snead? Later he wore a certain kind of summer straw with a certain kind of wildish hatband that became synonymous with him.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/PinkyLeeLadyofBurlesque.jpg/200px-PinkyLeeLadyofBurlesque.jpg"Yoo-Hoo, it's me, Pinky Lee." And how the hell could we have forgotten the great Pinky Lee? Pinky was pretty wild during his kiddy act and a part of it was he jumped up and down sort'a nonstop--until while doing one show, the Pink Man jumped for his last time--he had a massive coronary--and there went Pinky off to Kiddy Clown Heaven--John Wayne Gacey's up there, too. Pinky's character was the prototype for Soupy Sales and later Peewee "the Wanker" Herman.
http://www.njn.net/artsculture/williethelion/images/atpiano.jpgWillie "the Lion" Smith always had his derby on.
http://www.8notes.com/wiki/images/260px-Duke_Ellington_hat.jpgAnd this famous photo of the Duke in a topper.
http://www.nndb.com/people/595/000108271/ed-wynn-1.jpgEd Wynn the old vaudeville comic used this silly hat in most of his routines.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Park/2326/lt-daffyporky.gifWe remember Porky Pig wearing a lot of hats in his cartoons.
http://www.chess-theory.com/images1/01520_henri_matisse.jpgAnd last but not least, the hat made famous by Madame Matisse.

Our hats are over our hearts.

thestaff
for The Daily Growler

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